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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5489825" data-attributes="member: 2067">...He's Batman.Let that sink in for a minute. He's not a &quot;normal person,&quot; because he's frickin' Batman.Lawyers, doctors, pilots, commanders, Marines....all those are normal people. Skilled and driven, yes, but normal people.None of those people are Batman. All of those people are normal people because they are not Batman. This is kind of central to the idea of handling the Wiz v. Warrior balance in fantasy literature.If you wrap your head around the apparently heretical idea that Batman is not a normal person, you see that fantasy heroes -- including Batman -- aren't normal people. They are special. They are unique. They are exceptional. They are above and beyond any lawyer, Marine, pilot, police officer, or iron-fisty European dictator. They are beyond Michael Jordan and Einstein. They are like unto gods.This gets into some heady stuff if you follow the breadcrumb trail (like the idea that modern western society considers &quot;hard work&quot; and &quot;fabulous wealth&quot;&nbsp; and &quot;science&quot; semidivine in nature, re: The Protestant Ethic), but for our purposes here, it's enough to say that Batman is effective in a world with Superman and the Green Lantern, in part, because Batman is not a normal person, and if he was, he'd be a Marine or a lawyer, not freaking Batman. Normal people are not the kinds of people you tell fantasy stories about. They're the kinds of people you tell historical epics or modern dramas about. Once you're umm...BATMAN you're well out of the realm of normal person and consorting with the divine (even if it's a little hidden beneath a dusting of Protestant Ethic).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 5489825, member: 2067"] ...He's [I]Batman[/I]. Let that sink in for a minute. He's not a "normal person," because he's frickin' [I]Batman[/I]. Lawyers, doctors, pilots, commanders, Marines....all those are normal people. Skilled and driven, yes, but normal people. None of those people [I]are Batman[/I]. All of those people are normal people [I]because they are not Batman[/I]. This is kind of central to the idea of handling the Wiz v. Warrior balance in fantasy literature. If you wrap your head around the apparently heretical idea that [I]Batman is not a normal person[/I], you see that fantasy heroes -- including Batman -- aren't normal people. They are special. They are unique. They are exceptional. They are above and beyond any lawyer, Marine, pilot, police officer, or iron-fisty European dictator. They are beyond Michael Jordan and Einstein. They are like unto gods. This gets into some heady stuff if you follow the breadcrumb trail (like the idea that modern western society considers "hard work" and "fabulous wealth" and "science" semidivine in nature, re: [I]The Protestant Ethic[/I]), but for our purposes here, it's enough to say that Batman is effective in a world with Superman and the Green Lantern, in part, because Batman is not a normal person, and if he was, he'd be a Marine or a lawyer, not [I]freaking Batman[/I]. Normal people are not the kinds of people you tell fantasy stories about. They're the kinds of people you tell historical epics or modern dramas about. Once you're [I]umm...BATMAN[/I] you're well out of the realm of normal person and consorting with the divine (even if it's a little hidden beneath a dusting of Protestant Ethic). [/QUOTE]

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